At first instance: Court in Serbia rules to extradite former owner of Bulgaria's collapsed Corpbank, Tzvetan Vassilev

The Supreme Court in Belgrade has allowed the extradition of Tzvetan Vassilev, the former majority shareholder of the collapsed Corporate Commercial Bank, Serbian media reported on October 2.

According to the court, all legal preconditions for handing Vassilev over to the Bulgarian judicial authorities have been met.

The decision is based on a request for extradition, sent by the Bulgarian Prosecutor's Office in the autumn of 2014. This decision is at first instance and within three days Tzvetan Vassilev's lawyers can appeal it at the Court of Appeal.

***

Corporate Commercial Bank, Bulgaria’s fourth-largest lender by assets at the time, was placed under special supervision of the Bulgarian National Bank on June 20, 2014, following a bank run. On 6th of November, 2014, the BNB Governing Council revoked CCB’s banking license.

The indictment for the siphoning off of Corporate Commercial Bank was filed by the Specialised Prosecutor’s Office on 20 July, 2018. All copies of the indictment included more than 210,000 pages. 18 people have been indicted. The charges pressed against them exceed 5,000 pages.

The former majority shareholder of Corporate Commercial Bank Tzvetan Vassilev and the former deputy governor of Bulgaria’s central bank (BNB), Tzvetan Gounev, were among the indicted.

Vassilev was indicted on a total of 146 counts. He and the other defendants are alleged to have embezzled a total 2.56 billion BGN. He is also alleged to have led an organised crime group.

Vassilev is in neighbouring Serbia awaiting a court ruling on an extradition request by Bulgaria.